


Chemistry, Mixers, and Volleyball

by mercuryandglass



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Future Fic, M/M, almost everyone is bisexual for some reason?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-04 15:33:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10282235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercuryandglass/pseuds/mercuryandglass
Summary: Tadashi starts university.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nina (sugar-levels)](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Nina+%28sugar-levels%29).



> For [Nina](http://sugar-levels.tumblr.com/)
> 
> I hope you like it~~
> 
> (also if you have an AO3 account please tell me so I can properly add your name to the work~)

Tadashi doesn’t join the volleyball club in university. It’ll be too time consuming, he reasons. He’s here to study. He won’t let himself get accepted to an imperial university just to wash out in the first year, so, instead, he lets himself get dragged to the chemistry club by his lab partner, Hoshirou.

Chemistry club is nice. It’s calm. They meet up for food and homework help more often than anything else. It’s certainly a change of pace from Karasuno’s volleyball team, and Tadashi likes it. Of course he does. Competition has always worn out his nerves. He’s much more suited to this environment.

On the first Wednesday of May, they meet in a crowded ramen place a block away from the main campus. Hoshirou introduces someone new to them, Kunimi Akira. Kunimi wears subdued khaki pants and a pale button down shirt. It stands out in its plainness.

“Karasuno’s captain, right?” Kunimi asks when he’s sat beside Tadashi. It’s a question that doesn’t expect an answer. “I would have expected you to join the volleyball club.”

Tadashi ducks his head a little, scratching at the base of his neck. “I thought classes and homework would be more time consuming. Volleyball practice takes up so much time.”

Kunimi hums.

“What about you? Weren’t you captain last year, too?” Tadashi winces a little.

Kunimi cracks a smile at the hypocrisy in that question. “Volleyball isn’t all that important in the end, no? We both quit to study for university during the spring tournament.”

“You’re better at volleyball though. It wouldn’t be as time consuming for you.”

Kunimi turns to look at him, look through him. Carefully, he shrugs.

Tadashi shrinks. He runs a hand through his hair. “Sorry, I overstep.” He eats some more noodles. “Oh, what program are you in? I’m in science, chemistry.”

“Engineering, architecture.”

“How did you find the chemistry club, then?”

“Akimaru-kun found out I hadn’t joined any clubs yet.”

Tadashi winces. Hoshirou is…

“Oi, you’re talking about me?” Akimaru Hoshirou is very loud and very passionate about chemistry. He also has amazing hearing, apparently. “Ah, Akira, are you telling Tadashi about the mixer?”

“Why would I? I’m not even going?”

“But you should! Your high school senpai will be there, too.” Hoshirou gets up and squeezes himself between Tadashi and Kunimi.

“Oikawa? If he’s there then I’m definitely not going.”

“Akira~” Hoshirou whines.

“Don’t call me that.”

Hoshirou clicks his tongue. “Tsundere.” He lays an arm across Tadashi’s shoulder. “What about you, Tadashi? You’re single, right?”

Tadashi frowns a little. “Yes.” Is it that obvious?

“Really? You should come then! Three more girls confirmed after Tooru decided he’d come. We’re not very balanced for gender now.”

“Oh, um. Alright,” Tadashi says.

“Great! It’s Friday at the gyouza place two doors down from the Watami near campus. Show up before six and you’ll be fine.”

Tadashi makes a show of entering the information into his phone.

“We still need another guy, Akira~”

“Stop calling me that, and I’ll _maybe_ consider it.”

“Great!” Hoshirou stands up, jostling the table and spilling some broth from his bowl. “See you there!”

* * *

To: Tsukki  
20:38  
So I got invited to a mixer. Oikawa will be there apparently.

From: Tsukki  
20:40  
ww good luck finding a girl

To: Tsukki  
20: 41  
( ¬_¬) Are you up early or up late?

From: Tsukki  
20:41  
wouldn’t you like to know

From: Tsukki  
20:41  
seriously though are you sure you want to go when Oikawa will be there

To: Tsukki  
20:42  
I mean, it’s not like I can cancel at this point, right? And Kunimi, the one from Seijou, told me he’d see me there and I think that’s translation for “I will kill you if you ditch me.”

From: Tsukki  
20:42  
ehhh Kunimi is at Touhoku? didn’t think he was smart enough

To: Tsukki  
20:42  
Don’t be rude Tsukki.

From: Tsukki  
20:42  
rude? me? never

To: Tsukki  
20:42  
( ¬_¬)

From: Tsukki  
20:44  
alright I need to nap before class

To: Tsukki  
20:44  
Tsukki!!! Don’t stay up late on school nights!

From: Tsukki  
20:44  
you’re too loud. my first class isn’t even until noon

To: Tsukki  
20:45  
It’s almost five!

To: Tsukki  
20:47  
I hope the reason you’re not responding is because you’re sleeping.

* * *

From: Kunimi Akira  
13:10  
Do you want to walk to the mixer together

To: Kunimi Akira  
13:17  
Sure! Meet at 1730 outside the station?

From: Kunimi Akira  
13:48  
You know how to get there

To: Kunimi Akira  
13:50  
Yes.

From: Kunimi Akira  
13:50  
Ill be following you then

* * *

Tadashi arrives at Itsutsubashi Station at five thirty exactly to find Kunimi sitting on a bench by the entrance. “Sorry I’m late,” he says.

Kunimi looks up from his phone. “You’re not.”

Tadashi looks at all the people standing, then back down at Kunimi’s seat.

Kunimi reassures, “I haven’t been waiting long.” He stands up. “Lead the way.”

Tadashi smiles and ducks his head a little. He gestures for Kunimi to follow and turns towards the intersection. “How was your day?”

“Not much happened.”

“Ah,” Tadashi says. He flounders for a better response as they cross the street. “Are you liking your classes so far?”

“They’re alright.”

“It’s a pretty big change from high school, right? I don’t know what to do with myself sometimes.”

Kunimi just hums.

“It’s right around the corner here,” Tadashi says.

“Thank you for showing the way.”

“It was no trouble at all.” Tadashi flashes a smile and holds open the door.

Kunimi walks in.

“Akira!” Hoshirou greets, practically bouncing in place.

Kunimi almost backs into Tadashi. “I said I’d only come if you stopped calling me that.”

Hoshirou’s smile doesn’t falter as he turns to Tadashi, completely ignoring Kunimi’s glare. “Tadashi!” he says, as if they hadn’t seen each other that morning in class.

Tadashi smiles indulgently. “Hello.”

“Now, _Kunimi_ , you know Tooru, of course, but that’s Terushima Yuuji. He’s on the volleyball team too.”

"I'm aware," Kunimi says.

It’s a small world, Tadashi muses. He remembers the captain from Jouzenji; Terushima is a fundamentally difficult person to forget. He keeps his hair longer now, tied in a sizeable bun, though it remains in an undercut. It’s dyed brilliant pink, and his eyebrows match. He lounges at their reserved table, showing Oikawa something on his phone.

Hoshirou turns to Tadashi as Kunimi strolls over to his senpai from high school. “Tadashi, do you know Oikawa Tooru? He’s fr––”

“Karasuno!” Oikawa is a force of nature. He always has been. He waves at Tadashi like the ocean, vast and unyielding.

A split second later, Terushima starts waving him over as well. He and Oikawa sandwich a very stiff Kunimi between them.

Hoshirou manhandles Tadashi over to the table.

“Karasuno! Why didn’t you join the volleyball team?” Oikawa’s demands are as daunting now as they were when Tadashi was two inches shorter than him.

Tadashi ducks his head and rubs at the back of his head.

“Ehhh? You played volleyball too, Tadashi? Ah I feel so left out!” Hoshirou complains even as he herds Tadashi closer in along the bench.

Tadashi’s phone is pilfered from his pocket and passed along the line. Terushima grabs it first to enter his contact information.

“Well, obviously I don’t play anymore, and neither does Kunimi,” Tadashi says in an attempt to reassure him.

“Don’t listen to him, Aki-chan. Karasuno went to nationals with him. Which was more than I could do for my team in high school!” Oikawa’s words are ever so cheerful, and Tadashi’s inner ears ache with the underlying insincerity.

“Ah, if you kept up with high school volleyball, Oikawa-san, then you know that it was mostly Tobio and Shouyou getting the team there.” Tadashi’s smile strains itself slightly.

“Nonsense, Yamaguchi, don’t cheapen the efforts of a captain’s leadership.” Terushima finishes with Tadashi's phone and rejoins the conversation seamlessly. He hands it to Oikawa before standing up and weaving towards the washroom.

Kunimi taps furiously at his own phone.

Hoshirou’s pocket buzzes and light up, and he stands up to receive it outside.

“Yamaguchi, right? What a mouthful. I’m going to call you Yama-kun, okay?” Oikawa slings an arm over Tadashi’s shoulders.

The artificial scent of aftershave washes over Tadashi, and he nods.

“So, Yama-kun, why didn’t you join the volleyball club? We’re in need of members, you know, ever since two people quit a month in!”

On Oikawa’s other side, Kunimi slinks into the wall and clicks his tongue at his phone.

“I thought I’d focus more on academics at university. Volleyball takes up a lot of time.” It’s a practised line. Sometimes, even Tadashi believes it.

Oikawa’s eyes stare through him. The dim light of the gyouza shop blurs the edges of his circle lenses. His eyes seem unnaturally large. Then a switch flips, and Oikawa tilts his head back, chuckling. The menacing aura vanishes like it was never there. “You obviously didn’t have any older friends or siblings to guide you through life. Getting to university is the hard part, Yama-kun! Once you’re here; you’re home free!”

Tadashi swallows his protests. He wouldn’t know. Like Tsukki, Akiteru-nii went abroad for university. Classes have been straight forward, though, but the ease with which Tadashi finds the course material only sows further seeds of doubt. It shouldn’t be so easy; should it?

“Come on, promise you’ll come to practice tomorrow. It’ll be fun. Don’t you miss it?” Oikawa purrs the words, eeriness replaced by casual seduction.

Tadashi wants to say no. In fact, he opens his mouth to do exactly that, except Terushima returns and sits down, flapping his hands dry. A droplet of water flies into Tadashi’s eye. He blinks a few times. Hoshirou comes back as well, leading a group of five girls, and Terushima slides into Tadashi to make room.

With a significant amount of skin pressed into Oikawa’s oxford shirt and with Oikawa’s expectant eyes steadily considering him, Tadashi finds himself nodding instead.

Oikawa smirks.

* * *

Akimaru Hoshirou added Yamaguchi Tadashi to a group chat.

Kunimi Akira:  
Wait whats blue hair called again

Oikawa Tooru:  
Kondou Chisato pay attention!

Terushima Yuuji:  
help which ones saki and which ones natsumi

Yamaguchi Tadashi:  
Saki-chan is wearing the green blouse, and I think you mean Natsume, but she’s in the white turtleneck. Natsu-chan has side bangs instead of a side part.

Akimaru Hoshirou:  
You two are hopeless wwwww  
Kondou Chisato: “Chisato”; short blue hair, pink lenses  
Imai Saki: “Saki-chan”; straight brown hair, green shirt  
Arai Natsume: “Natsu-chan”; wavy brown hair, white sweater  
Itou Yumiko: “Yumi”; black hair in ponytail, glasses  
Nomura Mari: “Mari-chan”; blonde, English accent

Terushima Yuuji:  
lifesaver akimaru m^-^m

Akimaru Hoshirou:  
I live to serve~

Oikawa Tooru:  
Yama-kun you’re not 20 are you? I’ll buy you a drink if you switch with me

Yamaguchi Tadashi:  
Ah you don’t have to! Also I think Mari-chan is more into you anyways~

Oikawa Tooru:  
Are you all seriously seeing this

Akimaru Hoshirou:  
Confidence is sexy Tadashi

Kunimi Akira:  
I dont know some girls are into the adorably self depreciating ones

Oikawa Tooru:  
wwwww Speaking from experience are we Kunimi-chan?

Kunimi Akira:  
t-_-t Youre not my captain anymore im allowed to bring up iwaizumi san now

Oikawa Tooru:  
Such an ungrateful kouhai!

Terushima Yuuji:  
nice!!! chisato gave me her number

Akimaru Hoshirou:  
Woah so fast

Oikawa Tooru:  
Their children will have purple hair

Kunimi Akira:  
Alright i gave saki chan my number my duty is done stop using my given name akimaru

Terushima Yuuji:  
thats what you bribed him with wow

Yamaguchi Tadashi:  
Ah sorry, Oikawa-san! I was trying to get her to talk to you more!

Oikawa Tooru:  
wwwww It’s kay I know a lost cause when I see one.

Oikawa Tooru:  
Also give her your number before she gets a complex about it

Akimaru Hoshirou:  
Oi Tooru talk to Yumi more will you she’s looking distracted

Oikawa Tooru:  
wwwww That’s because we’ve been mailing.

Akimaru Hoshirou:  
Sneaky!

Oikawa Tooru:  
v^_^

* * *

“What stop are you getting off at?” Oikawa leans over Tadashi’s shoulder at his phone. “Oh, me too! Walk me home Yama-chan~”

Tadashi isn’t quite sure at which point during the night Oikawa had started using “-chan”. Oikawa’s aftershave has faded by now, leaving behind his minty shampoo and the sweet scent of sake. Oikawa is flushed from alcohol, eyes bright, if a little red from dryness.

They’re on the train together since they live in the opposite direction from Terushima and Hoshirou. Terushima turned out to have helped organise the whole thing. Thone two were old friends, apparently. They had gone to the same junior high or something and had managed to keep in touch.

Kunimi’s apartment turned out to be in walking distance from the gyouza place, a fact that he realised only after Tadashi searched his address and told him.

Tadashi is a little drunk too, but he had also been pacing himself with the girls while drinking rather than with Kunimi and Terushima, who both seemed to have the tolerance of adult elephants.

Tadashi does not have the tolerance of an adult elephant. Tadashi has the tolerance of perhaps a chubby harbour seal, but at least he’s self aware.

This night has been a very different experience from the double dates he and Tsukki often went on in the first and second year of high school, where they never really needed to text, where a single bump of their knees or a sideways glance would signal a change in tactics. It was even different from the outings in third year with Shouyou and Tobio and Tsukki, where the group chat system was more for telling off Tsukki for being rude or Tobio for being awkward or Tadashi for being shy or Shouyou for being naïve.

Tadashi’s not quite sure what to take from this night.

“Yama-chan~” Oikawa croons into Tadashi’s ear. “The light is green.”

Other than the fact that Oikawa is much less intimidating after Tadashi’s growth spurt. “Oikawa-san, do you think you can get up to your apartment by yourself?”

“Of course~” he slurs.

“Ah, I think I’d better walk you up then. Do you have a key or a card?” Tadashi grimaces as he digs around Oikawa’s jacket pockets. He spots a silver lanyard hanging from Oikawa’s back pocket.

Sure enough, Oikawa guides his hand there.

Tadashi pulls out an unadorned white card and presses it against the sensor.

Oikawa is leaning on the glass door when it beeps. He falls through.

“Ah! I’m so sorry Oikawa-san!”

“I’m good,” Oikawa says as he wobbles his way up, using the door handle as a crutch. “Seventh floor,” he says as he presses the elevator button for up.

Oikawa’s phone rings from the pocket of his jacket, which was in Tadashi’s arms. Tadashi holds it out to a lightly snoring Oikawa before sighing and answering it.

“Sorry but I’m not Oikawa.”

“Shit. Idiot didn’t tell me he was on a date. Sorry.”

“Ah, it’s no problem at all! We were at a mixer together, and I’m just walking him home because he’s slightly drunk.”

There’s a chuckle on the other side. “Oikawa doesn’t get ‘slightly drunk’. He gets smashed and then falls over and then he cries, sometimes not even in that order.” Iwaizumi pauses, considering. “Thanks for taking care of him, though. Write on his fridge that Iwaizumi called please. Or his forehead. He’s more likely to look in the mirror first, the damn narcissist.”

“Will do!” Tadashi promises.

Iwaizumi hangs up with a simple but confounding, “Good luck.”

The elevator bell rings as the line goes dead. Tadashi hurries to help Oikawa in before the door closes.

Oikawa clings to him the whole ways up, and Tadashi is hard pressed to support him. Oikawa is one hundred and eighty-five centimetres of solid muscle, and Tadashi might be taller now, but he’s also quite a bit scrawnier.

“Let’s get you some water, alright?”

“You’re very good at taking care of me, Yama-chan~”

Tadashi is glad that Oikawa is too drunk to notice his blush. “Iwaizumi called, okay? I’m putting a note on your fridge so you remember in the morning, alright?”

“Iwa-chan? Oh no! I forgot to cancel movie night.” Oikawa’s eyes are wide open. There’s redness in his eyes from dry contacts irritating his sclera. He rubs at his eyes before Tadashi can stop him.

“Ah, Oikawa-san you need to stop doing that.” Tadashi places a glass of cold water in Okawa’s hands before rushing to the bathroom.

He emerges with contact supplies and a pair of glasses only to find Oikawa swirling two brown circles in a quarter glass of water.

“Oikawa-san! That’s bad for your lenses!” Tadashi hands Oikawa his glasses before properly storing the contacts.

“I forgot to cancel movie night…” Oikawa repeats. His eyes are welling with tears.

Tadashi shifts from foot to foot. “I’m sure your friend will understand. Things get busy sometimes. Or we just forget to tell them.”

“But he’s never cancelled movie night!”

“Maybe you can make it up tomorrow,” Tadashi says, lifting Oikawa to his feet again. “But for now, let’s get you to bed, alright?”

“Thank you, Yama-chan.”

* * *

From: Oikawa Tooru  
08:02  
Wahhh I’m so sorry about last night Yama-kun

From: Oikawa Tooru  
08:10  
And thank you for taking care of me! I am in your debt!

From: Oikawa Tooru  
08:54  
Ehhh Iwa-chan called? He didn’t yell at you did he? Sorry he’s such a brute

From: Oikawa Tooru  
08:55  
Also volleyball practice starts at eleven I’ll see you there yeah? Come half an hour early if you can and pack a lunch~

To: Oikawa Tooru  
09:01  
Sorry I just woke up.

To: Oikawa Tooru  
09:02  
And anytime, really. I’m glad to help. Iwaizumi-san didn’t yell at me at all. He was very nice. I’ll be at volleyball at 1030! But where is practice held?

From: Oikawa Tooru  
09:03  
[location marker]

From: Oikawa Tooru  
09:03  
See you there~

* * *

The gym is eerily empty when Tadashi arrives. The rhythmic booms of volleyball against wooden floors echo through the space, like waves and waves of undertow drowning Tadashi. It fills his eardrums until he’s floating.

Tadashi remembers that summer night almost three years ago, when he walked past the third gym of a Tokyo high school and saw something that, to this day, he still wasn’t sure he was supposed to see. The sounds of “Tsukki” repeated again and again choked him, his breath drawn out of his lungs wisp by wisp.

Tadashi remembers those nights with Shimada-san, where it was a volleyball bouncing off the net and bouncing off Shimada-san’s arms. Until, one day, they instead bounced off concrete ground. It didn’t shift so suddenly, so abruptly, of course. It does in his memories, though. Weeks and weeks of failure upon failure until there was only success.

Tadashi glances at his phone. 10:27 AM. He pushes the door open. Oikawa turns from beside his trolley of volleyballs, drenched in sweat. His eyes are darker today. He’s wearing more comfortable contact lenses. His eyes bag with the telltale bruise of a lingering hangover.

“You’re here.” Oikawa’s voice is flat.

Tadashi thinks this might be the closest Oikawa can get to surprise. “I said I would be.”

Oikawa blinks once, then again. He smiles, bright and false. The moment snaps. “I’m glad! Show me your serve! I haven’t seen Yama-kun’s serve up close since you were bad at it!”

Tadashi refuses to flinch at Oikawa’s bluntness. It’s difficult, though. Tadashi is used to dealing with backhanded compliments and fronthanded insults only when they’re delivered in Tsukki’s signature monotone with his malignant smirk. He doesn’t know how to respond to something said so happily, with such false sincerity.

Tadashi shrugs off his sports bag and changes. He doesn’t think to ask for a change room until the bounce of volleyball stops, and he catches Okawa staring at him. He changes faster and starts stretching. Pair workouts with Tsukki were never this tense. Tadashi finishes taping his hands in record speed, motions locked in muscle memory.

Seemingly before Tadashi even approaches, Oikawa throws him a volleyball. “Go to the other side. Let’s see if I can receive it.”

Tadashi complies silently. He bounces the ball against the ground. He throws it and catches it. He likes the smack of it against his palms. He shifts on his feet. He bounces the volleyball twice more for luck. It’s a habit so ingrained that he no longer tries to break it.

So what if it makes him predictable? His jump float serve is used in three different instructional videos for textbook form.

The ball lands on the other side of the net without even touching Oikawa’s arms.

“Again,” Oikawa calls. He throws three more volleyballs to Tadashi’s side of the net.

This time, Oikawa doesn’t even try to receive it. He just stands, relaxed, observing with his eerie focus. When all three are over, his face breaks into a smile.

Tadashi feels something off about it until he approaches. That’s when he realises what it is. Oikawa is smiling genuinely. It makes him human, the smile. It’s slightly too wide to be pretty and shows too little teeth.

Tadashi smiles back.

Oikawa helps him wheel another cart out. They spend the remaining minutes before official practice serving to each other.

Oikawa’s serves aren’t as terrifying now as they were when Karasuno last played him. Tadashi isn’t sure if it’s because Tadashi is better at receives now. It might have something to do with the padded knee brace Oikawa pulled out of a small ice box right before practice started began. Tadashi can’t be sure, but he doesn’t think that there was only one backup brace in there.

A bystander approaches immediately after Oikawa calls for a break. “Karasuno, right?”

That greeting is beginning to grate on Tadashi’s already strained nerves. He has been introduced and reintroduced to too many people this week. He smiles, though. “Yes, I was pinch server, sometimes wing spiker, and occasionally middle blocker.” Tsukki had been out of commission for a good three games at the beginning of second year from a strained shoulder, and Tadashi had been the best substitute.

“Captain, too, I hear. Karasuno kept its spot in nationals.”

“Ah, yes, we did. Although I didn’t have all that much to do about it.” Tadashi pulls the tired words out of his vocal cords string by string by string. It forms a net all around him. He’ll hit it no matter which way he goes.

“Yamaguchi!” Terushima’s voice can fill any stadium. His presence is as big as Oikawa’s, though perhaps not as bright. It’s also not nearly as artificial.

“Good morning, Terushima-san,” Yamaguchi greets.

“Drop the -san, will you? We’re all teammates here. You _are_ joining the team, right?”

Tadashi meets Terushima’s eyes and immediately regrets it. He shrugs.

Oikawa intersects, “Ah, the chemistry club doesn’t meet that often; does it? It’s usually Wednesdays, right? Things won’t conflict; I promise.” Oikawa’s ears are better than Tadashi had hoped. That or Terushima is truly just that loud.

“Besides, if it comes down to it, I’m sure we could fight Akimaru for you. He’s a nerd. We’ll win for sure!”

Tadashi chuckles a bit. “Ah, that’s really not necessary, thank you…”

“He’s joking, don’t worry,” Oikawa says, patting Tadashi’s shoulder.

Terushima’s ensuing laughter is not at all reassuring.

* * *

After practice, Oikawa drags Tadashi to a café near campus. It’s overpriced, but surprisingly good. Tadashi orders a western blend of tea, and Oikawa orders two large cups of overly sweetened lattes.

“How did things go with Iwaizumi-san?” Tadashi asks

“Huh?”

Tadashi chuckles. “Did you call Iwaizumi-san about forgetting to reschedule movie night? You were worried about it last night.”

“I said that? That’s so embarrassing~” Oikawa scrunches up his face and lets steam mist over his face. He’s wearing a sweater over his shirt despite the stuffy interior of the café and the warming weather outside. He looks cozy like this, nearly approachable. The cashier flirted with him earlier, but, uncharacteristically, he didn’t flirt back at all.

“It’s good that you try to keep friendships even when you no longer see each other as often.” Tadashi smiles. It’s difficult not to feel endeared by this side of Oikawa.

“Does Yama-kun have a friend like that?” The question pierces, sharp and precise, straight through Tadashi’s chest.

Tadashi shrugs. “I’m sure you remember our blond middle blocker.”

“The haafu?”

Tadashi presses his lips together. The kneejerk reaction is Tsukki’s, though Tadashi has made it his own. “Yes. Tsukishima Kei. Tsukki and I have been friends since primary school, and now he’s studying overseas, and we have a twenty-hour time difference.” Tsukki’s glare imprints itself on the inside of Tadashi’s eyelids. He wonders if it shows through.

“You’re still close, though. That’s good.” Oikawa sits back. “Iwa-chan and I have been close since we met each other at the park when we were four years old. The longest I’d gone without seeing him was two weeks when he went to a wake with his parents during junior high. That is, until university started and he left me in Miyagi to go study in Kyoto.”

“It’s difficult, right?”

“It’s difficult, but we manage.” Oikawa smiles. It’s softer now, and startlingly genuine. Tadashi is struck. Suddenly he’s fifteen again with an impossible infatuation with the tall and beautiful captain of a rival school.

Tadashi smiles back.

Oikawa’s smile brightens, and the moment vanishes. “So are you going to join the team for good?”

Tadashi blinks a little at the sudden change in mood. “You have enough players, though.”

Oikawa waves his hand. “Hobbyists, mostly. Few at a very high level. None at your level.” The compliment slams into Tadashi with the brutal force only honesty can pack. “Frankly, I thought you’d been scouted to a different school, except then you showed up here having passed the ridiculous entrance exams like a normal student. I’d have left you to do whatever you wanted, too, but I’m kind of desperate. Kunimi and Kindaichi had a messy breakup and both quit the team, so we’re down a spiker and a middle blocker. And we can never have enough good servers.” Oikawa winks.

Tadashi doesn’t register it. Kunimi and Kindaichi? Captain and vice captain of the team they went up against at the end of second year for a spot in nationals? “Messy breakup?”

Oikawa raises an eyebrow, then withdraws. “Oh, are you not okay with that kind of stuff? I could have sworn…”

Tadashi blinks. “Oh no, I’m perfectly fine with it. I would have to be. I just didn’t realise Kunimi was…” _like me._

Oikawa relaxes. “See? I thought so.”

Tadashi frowns slightly. Oikawa is almost speaking as if he… oh. “Why were you at the mixer though?”

Oikawa tilts his head. “Why would I limit myself? I like both. Don’t you?”

Well… Obviously.

Oikawa smiles. “Terushima’s parents were pressuring him to get a girlfriend, so he called it off between us.” Oikawa pouts dramatically. “I’m very broken up about it, Yama-chan. Save me from my sorrows~”

Tadashi reels like a fish caught at the end of a fishing rod, spinning around and around and around, flailing messily on a wicked hook. “Was this…” _a date?_

Oikawa just tilts his head again, blinking his eyes in false distress. “You didn’t even realise?” His lips tremble with careful facade.

Tadashi blinks twice more before he registers the teasing tone. Ah, this, he knows. He flashes a smile at Oikawa and runs a hand through his hair. Using the distraction, he makes his move. He tangles their fingers together under the table and squeezes.

“Let me make it up to you then, _Tooru_ ~”

**Author's Note:**

> Beta credit: [Joan](http://anocturnalmorningperson.tumblr.com/) and [Mary](http://h0pe-y.tumblr.com/) are wonderful friends and hilarious people please check them out!
> 
>  
> 
> [Come follow me on tumblr!](http://mercuryandglass.tumblr.com/)
> 
>  
> 
> Kudos to whoever noticed Kunimi's tiny crush on Tadashi (because Tadashi remains clueless rip).
> 
> Also, I'm just really displeased about the ending? Ugh. I might do a rewrite one day.
> 
> OC list:  
> Akimaru Hoshirou: 秋丸 星郎  
> Kondou Chisato: 近藤 智里  
> Imai Saki: 今井 咲  
> Arai Natsume: 荒井 夏目 (Natsumi: 夏美)  
> Itou Yumiko: 伊藤 夕美子  
> Nomura Mari: 野村 茉莉
> 
> Disclaimers:  
> I did a decent amount of research for this, but please be wary that I have not actually experienced many of the things I wrote about including but not limited to Japanese universities, mixers, volleyball, crushes. I apologise if anything has been misrepresented!
> 
> But! Here's a reminder for all the other artists out there to create outside of your comfort zone! Write outside of what you know! Draw outside of what you see!


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